To teach accounting to others as an accounting professor, you’ll usually need a lot of education yourself. To become an accounting professor, you will most likely need to earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting after graduating from high school or earning a General Educational Development® (GED®) diploma. Then you’ll probably need to get a master’s degree and possibly a doctorate. A master’s degree is usually the minimum requirement for teaching college students in this field, but doctoral degrees are preferred most higher education institutions. Furthermore, for tenured or permanent positions, this advanced degree is usually required.
Obtaining a high school diploma and a bachelor’s degree are usually required to become an accounting professor. People who want to work in this field frequently begin earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting or a closely related field. This undergraduate degree will provide you with a solid foundation of knowledge that will be useful as you progress to higher education. Business law, finance, financial accounting, and managerial accounting are some of the courses you might take while pursuing this degree. You might also take classes in marketing, taxation, and cost management.
To become an accounting professor, you will almost always need at least a master’s degree. Master’s degree programs frequently necessitate a one- or two-year commitment to continuing education. This type of program expands on what you learned in your undergraduate program. For example, you could continue your education taking advanced classes in auditing, financial accounting, or taxation. It’s worth noting, however, that many educational institutions require professors to have doctoral degrees in order to be tenured, and some institutions may refuse to hire someone without one.
To become an accounting professor, you will typically need to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in accounting after completing a master’s degree program. This type of program typically includes the most advanced courses available in a higher-education accounting program. Finance theory and evidence, institutional finance, microeconomics, and econometrics are just a few of the courses available. A PhD will almost always include a research component, and you will almost certainly be required to write a dissertation in order to graduate.
Surprisingly, some doctoral-level accounting programs do not require a master’s degree as a prerequisite for admission. This means that after earning a bachelor’s degree, you may be able to apply to some PhD programs. Even so, earning a master’s degree first may be advantageous, especially if you want to work at a community college while pursuing a PhD or if you want to expand your related knowledge before enrolling in a demanding doctoral program.